Brooke's Doctor Appointment

Warning: This post contains PG-rated details about baby rears, poop, and digestion!

When my mom was here a couple weeks ago, Matt and I took Brooke to Lansing for an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist. She has a skin tag right in her anal opening that has been there since birth. It's a little smaller than my pinky fingernail at its biggest, getting smaller closer to her body. So its a big skin tag! It doesn't cause her pain or impede her bowel movements, but our family doctor wanted to get a specialist's opinion about whether we should take it out now or wait to see if it goes away on its own (apparently some do that).

Matt and I honestly thought, largely due to our experience with other doctors and specialists in the recent past, that this was going to be a big waste of our time. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I learned during this appointment.

First of all, we were under the impression that removing this skin tag would be a fairly simple procedure - a little numbing, a quick snip, minimal blood, and a quick and relatively painless recovery. But Dr. Malas explained that this skin tag has all of the nerve endings (if that's the right word even) as the bottom of the anal tract, which is alot! He said removing it would require her to be under full anesthesia and would be a significant procedure. His opinion was that removing it was purely "cosmetic" and up to us. He did NOT think that it would get any smaller or go away. We have a follow up appointment with our family doctor next week, but Matt and I are both of the opinion that it is not worth the risks associated with surgery and general anesthesia, even if it will be awkward for her to have an anal skin tag throughout her life.

That said, I wanted to share a couple related things that I learned from this doctor regarding baby digestion. By giving Brooke a physical exam, he found that she has a mild "anal ring." If I understand correctly, it means her tissue is more fibrous right inside her anal opening, which affects muscular relaxation and contraction. He said it will correct itself over time, that I could massage it while she is distracted by nursing to help it soften, and that it could result in pooping problems when she starts solid foods. (Normally I introduce solids at 6-6 1/2 months, but I am going to wait longer with Brooke because of the anal ring. Once I do, it will probably be only fruits and vegetables until we see how her digestion reacts.)

Based on this description and the impression Dr. Malas gave that all of these digestive issues have hereditary components, I am very confident that Noelle had an anal ring when she was a baby. She had constipation issues from 2-12 months, and we always said that it had to have been physiological in nature because her poop was still plenty soft. After regular doctors suggested natural and prescription laxatives (that didn't work), we eventually took Noelle to a chiropractor. Between adjustments and probiotic powder added to her juice, she eventually got over the problem. Now I know it might have just been her anal ring softening... Anyway, none of the doctors I talked to about Noelle's poop issues EVER said anything about an anal ring, even when I said that I thought the problem had to do with muscle tone.

Another interesting thing Dr. Malas said that I have never heard or read before was that if I were to be constipated, it would affect Brooke. I wish I would have asked about the how and why of this, but the conversation quickly moved on to something else. It is noteworthy though that recently Brooke went through a period of several days where she was spitting up more than usual. I wasn't eating anything unusual, but my own digestion was a bit off. Interesting!